Don Savage/Doug Isbell
Headquarters, Washington, DC                             February 19, 1999
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Lynn Jenner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
(Phone:  301/286-0045)

Jane Platt
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone:  818/354-0880)

NOTE TO EDITORS:  N99-9 

WIRE SCIENCE BRIEFING SET FOR FEB. 23

     Scientists will brief news media about the upcoming Wide-Field 
Infrared Explorer (WIRE) mission on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. EST.  The 
briefing will originate from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), 
Pasadena, CA.

     Scheduled to participate in the briefing are:

     Jim Watzin, WIRE Project Manager, NASA Goddard Space Flight 
Center, Greenbelt, MD
     Dr. Perry Hacking, WIRE Principal Investigator, JPL/Caltech
     Carol Lonsdale, Manager, WIRE Science Operations Center, 
JPL/Caltech

     The scientific goal of WIRE is to understand the history of star 
formation in the Universe.  Its four-month mission will help to 
achieve one of NASA's Origins Program goals of understanding how and 
when galaxies formed, and the subsequent history of star-formation in 
the Universe.  Answers to these questions will shed a strong light on 
the very nature of the Universe, including how the Universe could 
reach the point of forming Earth-like planets and Sun-like stars.

     NASA's newest spacecraft in the Origins Program is scheduled for 
launch at 10 p.m. EST on Mar. 1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA.  
The launch vehicle is a three-stage, solid-propellant booster system 
carried aloft by a Lockheed L-1011 jet aircraft.  The system will be 
released when the aircraft reaches an altitude of about 40,000 feet 
(12,200 meters) and has an airspeed of Mach 0.8.

     The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television, which is available 
on GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, vertical 
polarization, with a frequency of 3880 MHz and audio of 6.8 MHz.  News 
media will be able to ask the scientists questions from participating NASA 
Centers.

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